Canto d’Orfeo
The Mythical Singer in Baroque Operas
Dušní/U Milosrdných, Prague – Old Town
Artists
-
Delphine Galou
contralto -
Collegium Marianum
Baroque orchestra -
Jana Semerádová
flauto traverso, artistic leader -
Lenka Torgersen
baroque violin, concert master
COLLEGIUM MARIANUM
Jana Semerádová – flauto traverso
Lenka Torgersen, Malgorzata Malke, Magdalena Mašlaňová, Magdalena Malá, Vojtěch Jakl, Michal Klas, Daniel Podroužek – Baroque violin
Andreas Torgersen, Jonáš Kolomý – Baroque viola
Hana Fleková – Baroque cello
Luděk Braný – double bass
Filip Hrubý – harpsichord
Jan Krejča – theorbo
Programme
Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
Sinfonia in C major
Sinfonia in G major „Coro delle Muse“
Io son rea dell’onor mio (Argippo)
Johann Joseph Fux (1660–1741)
Felice io me n’andrò (Orfeo ed Euridice)
Io di Lete su la sponda (Orfeo ed Euridice)
Passacaille from Ouverture in G minor
Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–1759)
Mio bel Nume (L’Orfeo)
In mirar la mia sventura (L’Orfeo)
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787)
Danse des Ombres heureuses (L’Orphée et Eurydice)
Che farò senza Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice)
Johann Joachim Quantz (1697–1773)
Concerto for flute and orchestra in D major
Annotation
The mythical singer Orpheus himself will be present at the ceremonial closing of the 24th Summer Festivities of Early Music. The son of Calliope, the Muse of Epic Poetry, was blessed with an enchanting voice and was able to captivate both human and mythical beings with his musical art. The Canto d’Orfeo concert in the Church of St. Simon and St. Jude will be an extraordinary artistic experience, dominated by the delicious timbre of the French alto Delphine Galou, the graceful flute in the hands of Jana Semerádová and the interpretive mastery of the Collegium Marianum ensemble in residence.
The immortal love story of Orpheus and Eurydice and their dramatic fate will come to life in a programme of arias and overtures from Baroque operas by Antonio Vivaldi, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Joseph Fux and Carl Heinrich Graun. In their masterful compositions we will find scintillating emotions of sincere joy, explosive excitement and profound sadness, as well as expressions of peaceful repose and heavenly tranquillity. The final concert of the festival will be a tribute to the mythical singer Orpheus, whose art was worshipped by gods, humans, animals, natural elements and creatures from the underworld.
We offer a ticket to the concert for 100 CZK for students! For more information click here.
Venue
Dušní/U Milosrdných, Prague – Old Town
Show on mapPartners of the concert
The concert is held with the kind support of the French Institute in Prague.
Artists

Delphine Galou
contralto
Delphine Galou was born in Paris. In addition to her studies of the piano and singing, she also studied philosophy at the Sorbonne.
She specialises in the Baroque repertoire, collaborating with ensembles such as the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, I Barocchisti, Accademia Bizantina, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, Les Siècles, Les Arts Florissants, Le Concert des Nations, Ensemble Matheus, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Le Concert d’Astrée, Les Ambassadeurs and Les Talens Lyriques.
Her extensive discography includes e.g. Vivaldi’s operas Teuzzone, conducted by Jordi Savall, and Orlando, conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli, Vivaldi’s opera L’incoronazione di Dario and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, conducted by Ottavio Dantone, Steffani’s opera Niobe, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock, and Caldara’s serenata La Concordia de’ Pianeti under the baton of Andrea Marcon.
On September 2018 her CD “Agitata”, recorded with Accademia Bizantina, won the Gramophone Award as best recital of the year.

Collegium Marianum
Baroque orchestra
Since it was founded in 1997, the Prague ensemble Collegium Marianum has focused on presenting the music of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially by composers who were born or active in central Europe. One of the few professional ensembles specialising in this field in the Czech Republic, Collegium Marianum not only gives musical performances, but regularly also stages scenic projects.
The ensemble works under the artistic leadership of the traverso player Jana Semerádová who also regularly appears as a soloist with some of the most eminent European orchestras. Her active research, together with her study of Baroque gesture, declamation, and dance, has enabled Semerádová to broaden the artistic profile of the Collegium Marianum ensemble from a purely musical focus to multi-genre projects featuring Baroque dance and theatre. This background also informs her unique, thematic programming, which has resulted in a number of modern-day premieres. The ensemble works closely with renowned soloists (Hana Blažíková, Simona Houda-Šaturová, Roberta Mameli, Raffaele Pe, Chantal Santon Jeffery, etc.) and has carried out projects with leading conductors and directors (e.g. Andrew Parrott, Rudolf Lutz, Benjamin Lazar, and Jean-Denis Monory). Its artistic collaboration with the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles has produced dramaturgically extraordinary projects involving French Baroque music and dance (such as Michel-Richard de Lalande’s Grands Motets), including modern premieres. Collegium Marianum also presents original projects with the Buchty a loutky puppet theatre company (for example Francesco Cavalli’s Calisto and Georg Frideric Handel’s Acis and Galatea).
Collegium Marianum has received critical acclaim both at home and abroad. The ensemble has appeared extensively on Czech Radio and TV as well as on radio abroad. The performances of the ensemble at music festivals and prestigious venues, including Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Händel-Festspiele in Halle, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg, Bachfest Leipzig, Festival de Sablé, Klangvokal Dortmund, Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona), Prague Spring, St. Wenceslas Music Festival, and Concentus Moraviae, have met with great success. For the Händel-Festspiele in Halle festival in 2023, Collegium Marianum prepared a stage performance of Handel’s opera Alessandro Severo.
In 2008, the ensemble started successful cooperation with the Supraphon label, which has already released ten of its recordings of music by well-known and lesser-known composers, such as Jan Dismas Zelenka, František Jiránek, Jan Josef Ignác Brentner, and Josef Antonín Sehling as part of their “Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague” series. In 2022, the CD “A Lily Among Thorns” with Hana Blažíková was nominated for the Anděl Awards.
Collegium Marianum is the ensemble in residence of the Summer Festivities of Early Music international festival. In January 2010, it received the merit award for the quality and dissemination of Czech music from the Czech section of the International Music Council of UNESCO.

Jana Semerádová
flauto traverso, artistic leader
Flautist Jana Semerádová is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory, the Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University in Prague, and the Koninklijk Conservatorium in the Hague, the Netherlands. She is also a laureate of the Magdeburg and Munich international competitions.
Jana Semerádová is the artistic director of Collegium Marianum and programming director of the concert cycle Baroque Soirées and the IMF Summer Festivities of Early Music. She undertakes intensive archival research both at home and abroad and is engaged in ongoing study of Baroque gesture, declamation and dance.
Under her direction, Collegium Marianum stages several modern premieres each year. Jana Semerádová has a number of CDs to her name; her recordings with Collegium Marianum are featured as part of the successful series “Music from Eighteenth-Century Prague” on the Supraphon label, for which she has also recorded her two signature CDs “Solo for the King” and “Chaconne for the Princess“.
Jana Semerádová has performed at leading European concert venues and festivals (such as Oude Muziek Utrecht, Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci, Händel-Festspiele in Halle, the Prague Spring festival), collaborated as a soloist with artists including Magdalena Kožená, Sergio Azzolini, Alfredo Bernardini, or Enrico Onofri, and regularly performs with e.g. Il Suonar Parlante, Wrocławska Orkiestra Barokowa, or Orkiestra Historyczna.
In 2015 she received her habilitation degree as an associate professor of flute from the Faculty of Music and Dance at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 2019 she was awarded the prize of the Prague Group of the Society for Arts and Sciences.
The Czech Music Academy Awards „Anděl“ in 2020 brought the nomination to Jana Semerádová and Erich Traxler (category Classics) for their CD „Chaconne for the Princess“.

Lenka Torgersen
baroque violin, concert master
Lenka Torgersen studied violin at the Pilsen Conservatory and subsequently at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Václav Snítil. After graduating she focused intensively on Baroque violin and honed her skills at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under Chiara Banchini.
Lenka Torgersen is the concert master of Collegium Marianum. From 1999 to 2012 she was the concert master of Collegium 1704; currently she also works regularly with other Czech and international ensembles including La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Ensemble 415, Freitagsakademie (Bern), Ensemble Inégal, and others. From 1999 to 2012 she was concert master of Collegium 1704. As a chamber musician and soloist she performs at major European stages and music festivals and also collaborates with various leading figures in early music (e.g. René Jacobs, Andrea Marcon, Jordi Savall, Andrew Parrott).
In 2010 as a soloist with Collegium 1704 she recorded the works of Antonín Reichenauer, for which she received the Diapason d’Or award. In 2013 she recorded a solo CD “Il Violino Boemo” (Supraphon), a modern-day premiere reviving the sonatas of the 18th century Czech violin virtuosi.